Former Rajya Sabha member Rapolu Ananda Bhaskar quit the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Telangana on Wednesday, October 26. He is expected to soon join the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS). Bhaskar's resignation is the latest in a series of setbacks received by the BJP ahead of the November 3 bye-election to the Munugode Assembly constituency. Bhaskar is the fourth leader to quit BJP and join the ruling party in the last week. The Munugode bye-poll itself was necessitated by the resignation of sitting Congress MLA Komatireddy Raj Gopal Reddy, who switched allegiance to the BJP.
The bye-poll is touted to be an important election that will foreshadow the prospects of the TRS, BJP and Congress in the 2023 Telangana Assembly elections. Here’s a list of all the major instances of party switching witnessed in Telangana, since the Munugode constituency fell vacant.
Senior leader Dasoju Sravan quit the BJP recently on October 21 and joined the TRS. His resignation came less than three months after he quit the Congress party and joined the BJP. Sravan said that he was leaving BJP in protest over the alleged distribution of money, meat and liquor among voters in Munugode. Sravan was a former national spokesman of the Congress party. He was previously with the TRS, and had quit the party in 2014 to join Congress.
Sravan said that he had joined the BJP with the least expectations but was disappointed over the directionless politics pursued by the party. He said BJP promised to do alternative politics but its approach in the Munugode bye-election was disgusting. While resigning from Congress earlier in August, Sravan had alleged that there was total disorder in the party under the leadership of Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president A Revanth Reddy. He had said that he was not ready to live like a slave in the organisation.
Along with Sravan, former Legislative Council chairman K Swamy Goud too quit BJP to join TRS a few days ago. Swamy had resigned from TRS in 2020 to join BJP. He had been associated with TRS since 2012 and was Legislative Council chairman from 2014-19. Swamy said he was returning to TRS as he had not made any headway with the BJP in finding solutions to the post-bifurcation disputes with Andhra Pradesh. He also said in his resignation letter from primary membership of the BJP that only contractors and extremely wealthy people were able to grow in the BJP, at the cost of those making sincere efforts.
Former MLA Budida Bikshamaiah Goud also quit the BJP and returned to the TRS fold on October 20. The former MLA from Alair in Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly joined TRS in the presence of its working president KT Rama Rao. Earlier a member of the Congress, he joined TRS in March 2019 and switched to BJP in April 2022. In his resignation letter, Bikshamaiah reportedly criticised BJP for not fulfilling its promise of establishing a 300-bed hospital for fluoride victims, made in 2016 by then Union Health Minister JP Nadda at Marriguda in Munugode Assembly constituency. Recently, unidentified persons dug a grave for BJP president JP Nadda in protest over the same issue. Bikshamaiah also said that he was leaving the BJP after facing discrimination and injustice, and alleged that the BJP doesn’t care about BC (backward classes) leaders.
Soon after TRS announced its decision to field Kusukuntla Prabhakar Reddy from Munugode, former MP Boora Narsaiah Goud quit the party and joined the BJP on October 19. Narsaiah is a leader from the backward classes and a medical doctor by profession. He was an aspirant for a TRS ticket to contest the Munugode bye-poll, and was said to have been disappointed over not being fielded. He alleged that the TRS leadership had remained inaccessible for him to represent people's problems. He said he felt that his political life would be futile if things continued to be the same.
Komatireddy Raj Gopal Reddy himself quit Congress on August 2, just days before Sravan Dasoju, following months of speculation. Raj Gopal Reddy had announced that he had taken the decision keeping in mind the people of his constituency. He said that despite being a long-standing member of the Congress, the party had brought in ‘outsiders’ to head the state unit in Telangana, referring to Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) chief Revanth Reddy. He said that the Congress party was in a ‘despicable position’ in Telangana due to its ‘bad decisions’. He officially joined BJP on August 21 in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.